In the movie “Serenity,” Reavers are revealed to be humans from the planet Miranda. The Alliance government on Miranda added a chemical agent known as G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate, or simply “Pax” (Latin for “peace”), to the planet’s air processors. The Pax was supposed to calm the population and weed out aggression. The agent worked, but too well. The result was that 99.9% of the population became so lethargic that they stopped working, breeding, talking, and eventually, eating and breathing. They lay down wherever they stood and allowed themselves to die. The remaining 0.1% of the planet’s 30 million people had the opposite reaction to the Pax. Their “aggressor response” increased beyond madness, and they became mindlessly violent and aggressive without limit. Approximately 30,000 Reavers were created. They killed all the government officials who remained on Miranda, broke into the laboratories where the scientists had locked themselves, tortured them and ate them alive. They then left the planet, where they developed into the savage sub-race of the Reavers.
So the Reavers (to paraphrase Mel Brooks in “Blazing Saddles”) are really into rape, murder, cannibalism, rape, flaying, murder, piracy, and self-mutilation.*
I can buy Pax zoning out most of Miranda’s population to the point of ennui-induced death. I can even buy the chemical turning a tiny portion of Miranda’s folks into really scary monsters.
What I can’t buy is the Reavers sustaining themselves for 12 years (IIRC) as a space-going subculture. Why wouldn’t they have killed each other off? How can they remain rational enough to operate and maintain spacecraft, plan group tactics, carry out cool commando-style raids on Alliance outposts, etc.?
We don’t really know how Reaver “society” functions. We only see them when they are attacking. They may be calmer when prey isn’t immediately at hand. There may be a subcaste of Reavers that are more like Hannibal Lecter than mindless zombies that directs all the rest. Their savagery may even be slightly exaggerated. We just don’t know.
We know that they have some semblance of rationality because they obviously are able to mount tactical raids, fly spacecraft, leave traps, and choose when to attack prey (as in initially leaveing Serenity in the pilot episode and leaving behind that one guy in “Bushwacked”). Since we don’t see much detail of their psychosis and society, we can’t say how it works, only that it does.
We also don’t know that they haven’t been dying in droves since they were created. We don’t see enough to account for all of their initial numbers, and Bushwacked states that there’s been new recruits since Miranda.
The man left behind in “Bushwacked” eventually begins to mutilate his face and attack people. Mal speaks of it as becoming one of the Reavers as a way of dealing with the horrors he witnessed. If that’s true, the Reavers would have some way of “recruiting” new blood.
Yeah never saw how that fitted with end of the movie myself. If “reaverism” is caused by a chemical why would that guy suddenly mutate into a reaver. Maybe because that episode was written long before the ending of the movie
Also while I have my “comic book guy” hat on:
Why were there no reavers on the reaver homeworld ? And how do the produce more reavers once they leave the homeworld ? Do they put the chemical in the life support systems on their ship or something ?
But in answer to the OP just cos you a bunch psyco-ass man-eating nut-jobs, doesn’t mean your stupid. You can still plan, co-operate, etc.
Indeed if they were constantly in “kill eat destroy” mode, they would’ve just wiped each other out in the first five minutes of their existence. Presumably when there aren’t any “normals” around, they calm down at least a little bit.
Clearly there are multiple ways to become a Reaver. The first generation of Reavers were produced by the Pax, but subsequent generations (however many there were) were produced through psychological trauma. I don’t think this even rises to the level of filling a continuity hole; it’s straightforward enough that I don’t think there’s even a hole there in the first place.
Or alternately, they pump Pax into the ships they attack, which is why there was no sign of struggle in Bushwacked. It had disappated/been removed by the ship’s air scrubbers before Serenity turned up. The survivor was just the statistical fluke that turned Reaver instead of lying down, and Mal’s analysis of his change was wrong.
It’s not all that improbable. Clearly, the reavers work together to grab and attack their victims. Most likely, they look upon non-reavers as easy prey, whereas attacking one of their own is going to be difficult.
Two reavers working together are going to do better than one alone, so it’s natural that they would begin to form groups, willing to tolerate each other (under most circumstances – there are probably fights breaking out even among groups from time to time) in order to defend themselves from other reavers and raid other ships.
Most of the reavers probably came from Miranda (13 years isn’t all that long a time), plus a few who went made after viewing their attacks. It’s also possible that the gas caused a dominant genetic mutation, though what glimpses we’ve seen of the reavers show them considerably older than 13. Also, any children born in this society will be going to be taught to behave just like their parents.
It’s really not all that hard to imagine – pretty obvious, really, given the information in the Wikipedia.
That would be my guess, we know the Reavers broke into the labs on Miranda. I susspect they also have pretty much all there original inteligence, but also an anamalistic pack hunting mentality. They run their ships hot radioactivity wise, but it isn’t clear that the field is so lethal that it would kill them quickly, or just ensure large amounts of cancer and similar problems over time.
Perhaps they place vaguely worded advertisements in various newspapers.
“Are YOU looking for adventure? Does the idea of working with a passionate group of people ready to “cut” you in on the action sound exciting? Do you hate restrictive dress codes? Would you like to eat people exotic new foods? Then maybe you’re our kind of man. Fly to our recruitment office on Miranda to discuss how you might fit in with us. Be sure to rub the lotion on your skin and put it in the basket before you land.”
Another reason Reavers might not turn on each other: its clear that their primary (if not only) motivation is the spread of pain and terror. But they themselves are fearless and, judging by the self-mutilation, do not feel pain the way normal people do. Reavers might not prey on each other because it’s just not fun if your victim isn’t terrified and in agony.
